Unable or unwilling to come up with an offer that betters the $2 billion acquisition bid that private equity house Elliott Management Corporation put on the table back in March, Novell cut its fiscal Q3 revenue guidance Monday and attributed the downgrade to “customer uncertainty” associated with its board’s “ongoing review of various alternatives.”

Novell blew off Elliott’s $5.75-a-share bid as too low and said it would seek out some kind of higher offer. It has been silent since then.

Now it says revenues will only be $197 million-$199 million rather than the $205 million-$210 million it previously predicted. Its operating margin should be between 13% and 15% rather than 15%.

It claims to be “focused on growing the business and on its strategy to lead in the rapidly growing intelligent workload management market.”

Its final numbers are due out August 26.